How does this work? (Part I, Who's In Charge)

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Imp-Chan
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How does this work? (Part I, Who's In Charge)

Post by Imp-Chan »

Here we are, with a shiny, brand NEW board. Since we're operating under different rules from the previous Errant Story forums, I think I'd probably best spell out the infrastructure here. Let's start with who is supposed to be running and maintaining these boards....

These boards are owned by Caffeine Angel Studios, but that's not how we really want to treat them. Yes, we do need to make sure that the boards don't actively jeopardize Poe's career or anything, but for the most part we don't want the company to play a very major role in the running of the board. We think it would be better if it were run as exactly what it is supposed to be: a community by and for the fans of Errant Story and Michael Poe's other works.

To that end, we decided that neither Poe nor I would be active as administrators for the site, even though we technically can do everything an admin can do. Instead, the people in charge of the board will actually be the "Admin Council," a trio of dedicated individuals who have accepted responsibility for nurturing both the board and the community we hope to grow here. Two members of this council will be appointed by me and Poe out of nominations that you guys make and our own judgement... the third will be elected by you guys, on November 1st of every year (that's the anniversary of Errant Story starting, so it's easiest to remember). The idea is that this way, there will always be a balance of power, and the Admin Council will have to act as a team and be accountable to all the users here.

However, as you might have noticed earlier, there are five categories (or sections) to this board, and an awful lot of sub-boards. The Admin Council is only really responsible for setting the tone for the boards as a whole, and making policy decisions to keep it running smoothly, or settling major disputes. They're sortof like the federal level of government, except hopefully not crazy and corrupt... or at least entertainingly so if they are. Anyways, we decided there was potentially a lot of work to be done maintaining these boards, so we also needed Category Moderators... individuals that are either elected by you guys or appointed by the Admin Council and the Owners to take care of the different categories of boards. The Category Moderator's term is one year, and their job is to oversee their entire category... to decide if new sub-boards are needed, to decide the guidelines for posting in that category and all the sub-boards for it, to execute bans and resolve disputes, etc. They're also responsible for obtaining their Sub-Board Moderators, and acting as a sort of team leader for them.

What, you may ask, are the Sub-Board Moderators? They're erm... just normal mods? They do things like tidy thread titles, stickying topics, locking, merging, or splitting topics, and gently steering conversations back into the approximate realm of the same subject they were originally about. They can be either elected or appointed by the Category Moderator (with approval from the Admin Council only, since we don't want runaway power trips here), and aside from moderating their one sub-board they're just like any other poster. Anyone can be a Sub-Board Moderator, and the term is for 6 months or 1 year, depending on the board.

So, that's the gist of who will run this board, and what each level's approximate responsibilities are. This is brand new for us, and in many ways this is going to be a brand new community as well, so it may take a while to refine and adjust these ideas so they really work well. We'll be asking for your input and opinions on a lot of the details within this structure... which boards need elections, which need appointments, how long the terms should be, what the sub-board posting policies should be, etc. Still, now you know the plan... and we all know that's half the battle, right?

^-^'
Because scary little devil girls have to stick together.
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